Is Florida ready for a democratic socialist?

Oliver Larkin, a 34-year-old DSA candidate, is running for Congress in a newly drawn district in Florida. On Tuesday, voters will decide between him and a ‘DeSantis Democrat’

D oors don’t get knocked on much in this stretch of south Florida , where yard signs for Republican and Democratic candidates alternate from home to home. Oliver Larkin, the 34-year-old democratic socialist running for Congress here, knows this.

With a clipboard in hand five weeks before the state’s primary, Larkin and two canvassing volunteers walked down palm tree-lined streets with single-family homes to pitch residents on his plan for a better way of life. Surprisingly, many wanted to chat with the strangers at their door.

“You’ve got my vote!” said George, a longtime Fort Lauderdale resident who listened as Larkin explained his plan to lower the cost of living with a reduced property insurance rate amid a climate crisis that flooded his street just three years prior.

A few doors down, a resident who immigrated from Haiti was eager to chat, too. “I don’t see what [politicians have] done for Fort Lauderdale, and I’ve been in this city for 39 years,” he said. “But I don’t know who I’m going to vote for.”

Larkin talked to the resident for roughly five minutes. He didn’t mention socialism by name, but discussed policies that describe what socialism is: government-funded universal healthcare, free tuition at public universities and the construction of millions of new affordable housing units. He also explained his desire to protect and expand temporary protected status and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “All right,” the resident said. “I’ll vote for you.”

When one resident asked why, on a 95F day, Larkin was wearing a dark suit, he replied: “I’m dressed for the job I want!”

That weekend, about 75 volunteers for Larkin, some who traveled from counties on the other side of the state, knocked on thousands of doors across the district. It’s the engine – replicated by Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapters across the country – behind a campaign that establishment Democrats are watching warily and DSA leaders are treating as their next proof of concept.

While DSA-backed candidates won primaries in New York City , Philadelphia , Colorado and Michigan this year, the organization is now asking whether that momentum could power an upset in a state Donald Trump carried in 2024 and where Larkin’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Jared Moskowitz, is a two-term congressman who calls himself a “DeSantis Democrat”.

But Florida is not New York or Denver. Unlike the solidly blue turf DSA candidates have claimed so far, Florida’s 25th district is a brand-new, highly competitive district that boasts a diverse electorate and an almost even split between Democratic, Republican and independent voters – meaning independents will decide the election.

Beyond the two men on the ballot, the race is a proxy fight over what kind of Democrat can win in a Florida remade by Republican redistricting and rightward drift.